We heard some about it a year ago, Urban saying that while he liked the offense, he didn’t have the playmakers on the roster to really make the offense hum.

We heard about it during this summer’s camp, too. Jordan Hall was healthy, Carlos Hyde would miss only three games while sitting for his summertime indiscretion, the receivers had an additional year’s experience under their belts and there was that Dontre Wilson kid from Texas who was already tying up the first-team defense in knots.

We heard that we’d get to see what Urban Meyer’s offense really looks like in 2013.

There were glimpses against Buffalo and San Diego State. But on the road at California … boom, there it was. Again in the first half against Florida A&M.

But how would Ohio State do against Wisconsin, arguably the first real defense the Buckeyes had seen all year? With a quarterback who hadn’t played in more than two games?

Well, uh, yeah.

I still get the sense that we haven’t see the best of Ohio State’s offense. The best, I think, is yet to come.

Mrs. Crappy would have been a fan of Pete Johnson. And she might have found Archie Griffin a bit irritating.

The people who sit near us in the stadium undoubtedly recognize the chatter that comes from seats 9 and 10, Row 22 in 14 C. I sometimes have difficulty forming complete sentences, particularly when Ohio State has the ball, but Mrs. Crappy is able to clearly — and loudly — express her displeasure with running backs who stutter-step too much before hitting the hole.

“QUIT JUKING AROUND!”

She recognizes that a certain amount of, uh, juking around is necessary, but her patience with the practice is thin. After two games watching Jordan Hall and Dontre Wilson, she’s going to be very happy when Carlos Hyde — Ohio State’s premiere north-south tailback — is permitted to return to the lineup.

When Hyde is back on the field, it could be that 14 C won’t hear “Quit juking around!” quite as often for the rest of the season. But so we don’t forget — and to honor Mrs. Crappy’s contention that a downhill running game is the best kind of running game — the Killer Nuts Tailgating shirt shop has unveiled its very first new design for the 2013 season:

There’s more than a week before the next home game. Order now, and we can all carry Mrs. Crappy’s message into Ohio Stadium against Florida A&M.

Your favorite KNT shirts — Pork Division Champs, Leaders Champs, Urban Renewal and We Are Killer Nuts — are still available in the store as well, as as always, your purchases assure that I’ll have two or three extra dollars to spend on our tailgate parties. Thank you once again for your support.

As we packed up after the Buffalo game, I asked Fred if he could come up with an idea or two for the following week’s party. And when he emailed me a couple days later with suggestions for Italian-style sandwiches and Muffulettas.

I think Fred viewed these, which he pulled from Google, as possibilities. But they sounded good to me, and I viewed them as the menu for the San Diego State game.

Fred’s notes on the Italian sandwiches:

Italian-Style Sandwiches

• 1 (5.3-oz.) container spreadable goat cheese

• 2 tablespoons refrigerated pesto with basil

• 1 (12-oz.) package ciabatta rolls

• 1 pound variety meats

• 1 1/3 cups firmly packed arugula

• 1/2 cup jarred roasted red bell pepper strips

• 1/4 small red onion, thinly sliced

Wasn’t in the mood for onion and decided to use the full loaves instead of rolls. Also, used mixed greens instead

of only arugula.

Fred found delicious stuff at Costco for these, not the least of which was the amazing crusty bread he used for both. The pesto on these, the Italians, also made these stand out.

And then there were the Muffulettas. The olive spread meant that I wasn’t trying these — olives are one of a few foods that I really wish I liked — but everyone loved them. Here’s what Fred did with those:

Muffulettas

• 2 16-oz. jars mixed pickled vegetables

• 3/4 cup pimiento-stuffed Spanish olives, chopped

• 2 tablespoons bottled olive oil-and-vinegar dressing

• 12 small dinner rolls, cut in half

• 6 Swiss cheese slices, cut in half

• 12 thin deli ham slices

• 12 Genoa salami slices

• 6 provolone cheese slices, cut in half

Used Costco Muffuletta spread instead of making my own. Used provolone only (because I forgot to buy

swiss). Used the same rustic loafs that I used for Italian sandwiches.

Olive-y goodness.

A couple of other tips from Fred:

Best secret in making sub-style sandwiches: Slice open and hollow out the top of each loaf, hollow top slice and the fixins fit much better.

Went to Wasserstrom Restaurant Supply for foil bins (used for serving) and beautiful bamboo toothpicks.

The next game is a noon start, which means it’ll be tough for Mrs. Crappy and me to cook. Anyone have any suggestions?

When Mrs. Crappy mentioned last week that we weren’t going to start the season with our traditional breakfast casseroles, I was concerned. After tasting what she came up with, I have learned — once again — that I need to shut up. As usual, this post is written by Mrs. Crappy, with commentary from me in italics.

OK kids, a new season calls for new recipes. In an attempt to find something new to feed the Killer Nuts, I modified a crescent roll poppers recipe, ending up with what has been dubbed (by Ethel) Biscuits and Gravy Casserole without the gravy for the Aug. 31, 2013, game in Columbus against the Buffalo Bulls.

The original recipe for ground beef poppers came from Pinterest (of course it did). Initially, I thought what the hell, we can have ground beef for breakfast, but then I got to thinking what if I used breakfast sausage instead. And I didn’t want to wrap up 48 individual crescent rolls as the recipe calls for, so casserole pan it is! Hunger and laziness — two great motivators! BONUS: This recipe contains no eggs (Other than what’s in crescent rolls to begin with.), because we have several tailgaters who do not eat them, no way, no how! As Juan says, “Lips that touch eggs will never touch mine.”

Sorry — we did not do the step-by-step photo process when cooking this week. We’ll do better as season goes on! Promise!

Mostly because she was making these at 5:30 Saturday morning, and who thinks of taking pictures at that hour?

Sausage Gravy Casserole

What you need:

Four refrigerated crescent roll tubes (I used store brand).

2 pounds ground breakfast sausage (It’s Ohio, so I had to use Bob Evans regular breakfast sausage in 1 pound packages in the bacon/sausage/hot dog section of grocery).

Two 8-ounce packages of Philadelphia Cream Cheese (Don’t be cheap on this ingredient. Store brands suck!).

Butter-flavored cooking spray.

What you do:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees, placing racks on middle level. Racks on bottom will burn the bottom of crescent rolls.

Spray two baking pans with cooking spray (I used glass Pyrex 11″ X 9″). Cover bottom of each pan with a layer of crescent roll dough. Bake for about 6 to 8 minutes. Pull out of oven and let cool.

Cook the sausage in a frying pan, breaking it up into a crumbly consistency. And here is where I would like to experiment with this recipe more: this would be a good place to throw in something like a can of drained green chilies (as the original popper recipe called for) or onions, other vegetables, whatever. I did add a little garlic powder and black pepper.

When sausage is cooked and drained, with pan on a lower heat setting (actually, we cooked sausage and refrigerated at night. In morning I reheated) add in all of the cream cheese. Cutting the cheese into chunks helps it melt down faster.

Stir, stir, stir! Don’t burn or brown the cheese, but blend it in with the sausage. You’ll end up a creamy, thick paste.

Then spread on top of baked dough. Spread it to all corners, right up the the edges. Then cover with another sheet of crescent roll dough, and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, until dough is light brown.

Let cool slightly and cut into whatever size servings you want. Since we had 17 at the tailgate, I made small squares that could be picked up and eaten as finger food or cut with fork. I liked mine with a bit of Frank’s Red Hot sauce on top. The little we had left over and reheated in microwave for about a minute and a half, were excellent, so I think this is a recipe that could be made and then frozen for future use.

The finished casseroles — along with two pans of cheesy potatoes — were dropped in the patented Pound Family Tailgating Box (a large cardboard box with beach towels to insulate whatever stuff we’re bringing) and served, still warm, to our fellow KNTers.

This one is a keeper, boys and girls. Ethel was dead on when she said it tasted like Bob Evans biscuits and gravy. I was surprised that there was anything left over, although I was pretty happy about it Sunday morning.

Fred and Ethel are taking over for this Saturday’s game in Columbus against San Diego State. Can’t wait to tell you about what they make!

Jordan Hall was healthy. Dontre Wilson blew away everyone in camp. The receivers were healthy and experienced. And, we were told, Braxton Miller had successfully turned the corner, morphing from an athlete playing quarterback into an athletic quarterback.

The Urban Meyer offense was locked and loaded. And during the first quarter on Saturday, we got a glimpse of what could be in store for the rest of the fall.

Three possessions. Three touchdowns. Total time of possession just over six minutes. Two two-point conversions from one of those flaky unbalanced formations that I hate unless Ohio State is the team doing it.

And lots of silly grins and high fives in C-deck.

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It was raining when I opened the garage door at 5:30 Saturday morning; that humidity hung with us even after the rain ended.

But the heat and humidity didn’t seem to bother the season’s first tailgating effort, and it certainly didn’t appear to bother our guests for the morning; my Florida cousins Jonathan and Ryan got to join us before taking in their first Ohio State game in the stadium. I hadn’t seen either one of those guys since they were kids, and it was great to hang out with both of them for the day.

The Hat is back.

We ate well — Mrs. Crappy will have her recap posted in the next day or two, and let me tell you, the breakfast creation she came up with was killer — pulled off the toast, and we all got inside without any forgotten tickets or anything.

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At the end of the first quarter, the score was 23-0, and most of us in the stadium were sporting those silly grins I mentioned before.

The coaches said they throttled back on that display after the first quarter, in part out of concern for how players were faring in Saturday’s heat. And that helped highlight the one concern I had at the end of the day — the offensive line. Some of those problems were most noticeable in the second half, when Buffalo was dropping eight players into pass coverage; the blanket coverage downfield can lead to some extra pressure on Miller, who looked a bit like he didn’t want to scramble, at least until ripping off a few long runs in the fourth. But I saw too many instances where Miller was hurried by a three-man rush, and I saw too many instances when Ohio State’s O-line got pushed into the backfield; that unit should be a strength for the Buckeyes, and there were too many instances on Saturday when it didn’t play that way.

But, you say, what about the defense? How can Ohio State give up 20 to a middle-of-the-road MAC team? There are two answers to those questions:

1) Nine of the starting 11 had never started a college game before. There will be mistakes.

2) Because of that inexperience, Luke Fickell and the coaching staff played a pretty simple defense on Saturday.

Look, before you start griping about the defense, consider: Bradley Roby will be back at his corner spot against San Diego State, and that’s going to help a bunch. And the youngsters have three more games — against SDSU, at Cal and against Florida A&M — to get themselves comfortable before we start conference play.

—

And best of all? As far as I know, this was the most serious injury of the entire day.

Mrs. Crappy’s foot was OK. But the hummus, unfortunately, is out for the season.